John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There is a crisis. There has been a huge increase in demand but that was not unexpected. To hear that we are still trying to recruit staff to deal with this crisis is concerning. It shows a lack of proper planning. The fact that we are still training and recruiting staff is unacceptable.

It must be said that the staff working in the Passport Office are excellent. There is no criticism whatsoever of the staff. They are working exceptionally hard but there are major challenges for first-time and child passport applications. I am contacted daily by 40 to 50 people who are wondering where their passport is and who cannot get through to anyone in the Passport Office by phone or web chat. In many cases, their applications have exceeded the estimated issue date by weeks. It is totally unacceptable that people whose applications have been with Passport Office for eight to ten weeks are contacted by trackers only days before the estimated issue date to be told that there is a problem. That is a serious issue and is one of the major failings within the system. It creates an additional workload for staff and puts extra pressure on applicants and staff.

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